Does anyone ever wonder what animals/insects think about?

[Ovid]

 

[Anomoly]

View attachment 14252

Aww, don't worry, he'd never jump. He's waiting for the kitty bus

 

[Ovid]

Aww, don't worry, he'd never jump. He's waiting for the kitty bus

I thought he was using the view for perspective..

 

[Anomoly]

I thought he was using the view for perspective..

Ah, Now I can see I have sooo many ideas up my sleeve at once

 

[Ovid]

Ah, Now I can see I have sooo many ideas up my sleeve at once

I can relate. I also thought of the famous picture of John F Kennedy..

 

[indra]

you know when you're driving home from work and you don't know where the last fifteen minutes was?

being a bug is like that.

 

[Evee]

Little fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.

Am I not
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live
Or I die.

The Fly, by William Blake

 

[Opal]

I'm sure (non-human) animals are capable of abstract thought, reason, emotion, and intention. Our thought structures are more complex, but we are also groomed by society from birth. Pets, on the other hand, are boxed into narrow areas of thought and never offered windows through which they might understand more of the world's governing forces.

 

[Remiel]

I'm sure (non-human) animals are capable of abstract thought, reason, emotion, and intention. Our thought structures are more complex, but we are also groomed by society from birth. Pets, on the other hand, are boxed into narrow areas of thought and never offered windows through which they might understand more of the world's governing forces.

The magic of it all occurs in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex as well as in the amygdala, primarily. As well as minor roles scatter through out the neural network of the mammal brain. All in all creating the possibility of a sense of one's self an others. Call it the mirrored self for fun. A cockatiel finds warmth and comfort in a mirror left in it's cage. More evolved creatures which includes homo sapiens as well as elephants, cetaceans as well as several inhabitants of what we refer to as Hominidae in the monkey family tend to recognize themselves in the mirror. As well as performing cognitive exercises limited to less evolved creatures. All pointing to the fact that consciousness could not spark without the possibility to evolve the prefrontal cortex. (All of the mentioned animals has very large prefrontal cortex's.)

Pets, is a fun topic. Canine evolution has traveled alongside our own evolution creating interspecies groups which manifests itself most clearly through the family golden inside of the family unit. If the family dog is a sort of natural and healthy representation of interspecies relationship then is the keeping of more highly evolved animals such as dolphins and whales inside of a limited zoo environment a representation of a deformation of these natural occurring boundaries. If a family dog represents healthy interspecies relationships then an orca at SeaWorld represents a perversion of it.

 

[Luke O]

Is it a case of figuring the boundary between Instinctual and "Superinstinctual" (of which sentient thought would be a part of)?

 

[yasin]

Not a lot for less intelligent beings, there is a threshold where actions are purely instinctual. I'd say complex thought processes are reserved to higher forms especially mammals.

For example I can look into a dog's or cat's eyes and know there's a lot of thought and feelings in there.

What type of thought or feeling do you know a dog or cat has?

 

[yasin]

More my own pets than the everyday animal... I had a very curious betta fish once who, LITERALLY every time someone walked into the room and moved, he would physically turn with them and stare at them to the point where it would make them uncomfortable and they would complain about it or leave. I often wonder why he thought staring at people was so fascinating. I've had multiple betta fish in my life, and never has any other one of them found staring at people interesting...

And once, I sat in the hallway with my door open to play with my hamster and I turn my head and my fishtank was right next to the open door, you could barely see in the room at all, but the tank was visible, and low and behold that fishy boy was right in the corner staring me down... he was a weird one. I miss him.

Also, I'll sometimes be outside and think, "What do birds think when people do some of the bizarre shit that they do?"

Insects--I don't ever consider. They freak me out and I want them to stay away from me

The betta fish was a curious and thoughtful intp

 

[ceecee]

Does anyone ever wonder what animals/insects think about? I can't be the only one, right? I know this question is super random.

Insects? No. Dogs and cats? Sure. Cats are plotting a worldwide takeover or at least how to step on your face in the middle of the night and make it look cute and accidental. Dogs? I definitely think dogs think about their people and their happiness, tennis balls, bones, how much mess they can make when drinking out of a bowl and if they can get away with napping on furniture.

 

[prplchknz]

yes, my question is who doesn't wonder this? i'm pretty sure everyone does to some extent.

 

[yasin]

Oh, and babies.

YES! I dont think about what animals think, but i often think what babies think about!

 

[yasin]

yes, my question is who doesn't wonder this? i'm pretty sure everyone does to some extent.

I think, i dont think what animals think about, i see them as automatic machines made to work, the insects and plants especially.
For example, a few months ago, i read somewhere, ants dont sleep. I was a bit surprised at first. But, then i realized, they are just similar to bacterias, whose only work is to decompose everything, they are just automated chemical machines.

Oh and yes, i also see each human playing his own role as an automated chemical machine, effecting his own fate and others'

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Does anyone ever wonder what animals/insects think about? I can't be the only one, right? I know this question is super random.

I once read a book about ants (written by a researcher describing them analytically in layman's terms) and after finishing the book my imagination triggered a strong sense of what it is like to be an ant. I didn't feel small, but the same size as now, and I couldn't see images clearly, but just dull sense of light and dark, and ongoing sense of meandering, to keep on moving, with very little defined thought or images. It was this grey haze of simplicity that was actually kinda peaceful.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Not a lot for less intelligent beings, there is a threshold where actions are purely instinctual. I'd say complex thought processes are reserved to higher forms especially mammals.

For example I can look into a dog's or cat's eyes and know there's a lot of thought and feelings in there.

Insects might have a collective consciousness.

 

[Qlip]

I'm reasonably sure that animals experience life much more on the level that we experience emotions. Their feelings just tend to be a lot more relevant to their existence, depending on their environment. I imagine some animals, like dogs, are continually in an existential crisis.

 

[INTP]

I do quite a lot. Maybe this is why i generally am good with animals.
[MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION] I think feeling(like the function) would describe it better than emotion, but i agree in general. Except to that dogs having an existential crisis thing